<![CDATA[This study aimed to investigate the effect of storytelling-based narrative writing instruction on elementary students’ literacy performance and character development. Employing a quasi-experimental design with pretest–posttest control groups, the research involved 60 fifth-grade students from Central Java, Indonesia, who were divided equally into experimental and control groups. Data were collected using a narrative writing test and a character development questionnaire covering responsibility, honesty, cooperation, and cultural appreciation. Statistical analysis using independent-samples t-tests revealed that students in the storytelling group significantly outperformed their peers in the control group, with large gains in narrative writing scores (t(58) = 7.38, p < .001, Cohen’s d = 1.90). Moreover, storytelling enhanced students’ character development, shifting their ratings from “fair” to “good” across all measured dimensions, with the strongest improvement in cultural appreciation. The findings conclude that storytelling is an effective pedagogical strategy to simultaneously improve narrative writing skills and foster positive character values in elementary education. The implications suggest that teachers should integrate storytelling, particularly with culturally relevant folktales, to achieve dual objectives of literacy and character formation. Policymakers and curriculum developers are encouraged to adopt storytelling as a contextually grounded approach to holistic education The novelty of this study lies in its integrated examination of storytelling-based narrative writing as a dual pedagogical approach that simultaneously promotes writing proficiency and character development within a culturally grounded elementary education context.]]>
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